The staggering number of people claiming jobless benefits set a new record for the second week in a row. Much of the country has been ordered to stay at home, bringing the economy to a lurching halt.Read more ...

US weekly jobless claims spiked to a second consecutive weekly record as coronavirus-induced layoffs persist across the entire country.
6.64 million Americans filed for unemployment insurance in the week ending March 28, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
Economists expect that the US will fall into recession in the second quarter if it isn't already in one. The sky-high jobless claims could raise the unemployment rate by multiple percentage points.
"What is striking about this crisis is how broad, how deep, and how rapid these cuts have been," Julia Pollak, labor economist at...Read more ...